This week’s Freedom Defenders—picked by Russell—are Kaveh Shahrooz and Aaron Wudrick (left and right respectively below) for their full-throated defence of free expression in an article they released for the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.
Since the Oct 7 terrorist attacks in Israel and the subsequent military actions by the IDF in Gaza, emotions have understandingly been running very high in Canada. The offensive statements by some people and the noisy and toxic environment of social media have only added to this tension. (As I’ve mentioned before: don’t forget to take breaks from being online).
As usual, times like this see an increase in people calling for either the arrest of their opponents over “hate speech”, their censure, or some other form of punishment. It might sound cliche, but this is when a loud defence of free expression is most needed.
Kaveh and Aaron get it. And their recent article hits on the major points about why free expression is important for topics like this and why it’s perhaps our most sacred of rights.
Please read their article:
“Now more than ever we must resist an illiberal turn against free speech” by Kaveh Shahrooz and Aaron Wudrick
